it is a general slide of plant breeding potential and objectives.

2. On
“Plant Breeding Potential & Opportunities”
Presented by- Agnivesh Yadav
Id. No. - 12387/21
Ph.D. 1st Year
Department of Vegetable Science
PRESENTRATION

3. INTRODUCTION
What is Plant Breeding?
 Plant breeding uses principles from a variety of sciences to improve the genetic
potential of plants. The process involves combining parental plants to obtain the
next generation with the best characteristics. Breeders improve plants by
selecting those with the greatest potential based on performance data, pedigree,
and more sophisticated genetic information. Plants are improved for food, feed,
fiber, fuel, shelter, landscaping, eco-systems services and a variety of other
human activities. (NAPB)
 "Plant Breeding is the art and science of the genetic improvement of plants." -
Fehr, Principles of Cultivar Development: Theory and Technique, 1987
 "Plant Breeding is the art and science of changing the traits of plants in order to
product desired characteristics." - Sleper and Poehlman, Breeding Field Crops,
1995
 "Plant Breeding is the genetic improvement of plants for human benefit." -
Bernardo, Breeding for Quantitative Traits in Plants, 2010

4. CONT.
 Reconciling sustainability with agricultural productivity in the face of
climate change relies strongly on the development of resilient, high-
yielding crops of superior nutritional value that can be grown more
resource efficiently. Therefore, innovation in plant breeding has gained
unprecedented importance.
 This plant breeding innovation leap is based on an in-depth understanding
of plant genomes and refinement of breeding methods, enabling more
efficient, more precise and faster progress in achieving the desired
breeding goals.
 Euroseeds company presented the enormous interest in using new
breeding techniques (NBTs) for a wide range of crop species and traits.

5. PLANT BREEDING POTENTIAL
1. Higher Yield- Ultimate aim of the plant breeder is to improve the yield of
economic produce. It may be grain yield, fodder yield, fiber yield, tuber
yield, cane yield or oil yield depending upon the crop species. Improvement
in yield is achieved by development of high yielding or hybrid varieties.
2. Improved Quality- Quality of produce is another important objective in
plant breeding. The price of produce is determined by its quality. Again
quantity differs from crop to crop. It refers to cooking quality in rice, baking
quality in wheat, fiber length and strength of cotton, keeping quality of fruits
and vegetables, protein content in pulses, oil content in oil seed and sugar
content in sugarcane and sugar beet.
3. Biotic Resistance- crop plants are attacked by various disease and insects,
resulting in considerable yield losses. Genetic resistance is the cheapest and
best method for minimizing such losses. Resistant varieties are developed
through the use of resistant donor parent available in the gene pool.

6. 4. Abiotic Resistance- Crop plant also suffer from abiotic factors such as
drought, soil salinity, heat, wind, cold &frost. Breeders has to develop
resistant varieties for such environment conditions.
5. Earliness- Earliness is the most desirable character which has several
advantages. It requires less crop management period, less insecticidal
sprays permits double cropping system and reduces overall production cost.
Thus earliness is an important objective in plant breeding programme.
Determinate growth habit has close association with earliness.
6. Photo and Thermo sensitivity- Development of insensitive varieties to
light and temperature helps in crossing the cultivation boundaries of the
crop plants. In maize, potato, and rice now varieties are available which can
be grown summer as well as winter season. Evolution of photo and thermo
sensitive varieties permit their cultivation in new areas outside boundaries
of cultivation of a crop species.
7. Synchronous Maturity- It refers to maturity of a crop species at one time .
This character is highly desirable in crops like Green gram, cowpea and
cotton where several pickings are required for the crop harvest.
CONT.

7. 8. Desirable agronomic traits- It includes plant height, branching, tillering
capacity, growth habit etc. usefulness of these traits also differ from crop to
crop. For example tallness, high tillering and profuse branching are
desirable character in fodder crops, whereas dwarfness is desirable
character in wheat, rice, sorghum and pearl millet. Dwarfness confers
lodging resistance character in these field crops, in addition to better
fertilizer response.
9. Removal of toxic compounds- It is important to develop varieties free
from toxic compounds in some crop to make them safe for human
consumption. For example removal of erucic acid from brassica which is
harmful for human health, gossypol from cotton seed is necessary to make
them fit for human consumption.
10. Wider Adaptability- Adaptability refers to suitability of variety for general
cultivation over a wide range of environmental conditions. Adaptability is
an important objective in plant breeding because it helps in stabilizing the
crop production over regions and seasons.
CONT.

8.  Some other characters- In some crops such as green gram and pea, seed
germinates in the standing crop before harvesting if rains are received. A
period of dormancy has to be introduced in these crops to check loss due to
germination. In arboreum cotton shedding of kapas after boll bursting is a
serious problem. Locule retentive varieties have to be developed in this
species of cotton. The shattering of pods is serious problem in green gram.
Hence, resistance to shattering is an important objective in green gram.
CONT.
Fig- Seed germinated before harvesting.

9. RECENT RESEARCH
1. Bio fortification-
 Maize-breeding programme has been focusing on identifying white-
grained maize germplasm that has the potential to increase kernel iron
and zinc concentrations. One difficulty that maize breeders encounter is
that grain iron and zinc concentrations are often correlated negatively
with grain yield, which may result from the increased carbohydrate
content of high-yielding materials, so that a given amount of iron and
zinc is diluted. (Bänziger, & Long, 2000).
 Concentrations of Zn in whole-wheat grain, as well as amounts of
bioavailable Zn in the grain, can be increased significantly by using
traditional plant-breeding programs to select genotypes with high grain-
Zn levels. Increasing the amount of Zn in wheat grain through plant-
breeding contrivances may contribute significantly to improving the Zn
status of individuals dependent on whole grain wheat as a staple food.
(Welch et al., 2005)

10. 2. Resistance-
 Brown plant hopper (BPH) is the most devastating pest of rice. Host-plant
resistance is the most desirable and economic strategy in the management of
BPH. To date, 29 major BPH resistance genes have been identified
from indica cultivars and wild rice species, and more than ten genes have
been fine mapped to chromosome regions of less than 200 kb. Four genes
(Bph14, Bph26, Bph17 and bph29) have been cloned. The increasing number
of fine-mapped and cloned genes provide a solid foundation for development
of functional markers for use in breeding. (Hu & He, 2016).
 Barley yellow dwarf virus- Genes which form the basis of natural resistance
in some resistant grasses have been identified and introduced into cereal
genomes via crossing – the most important of them is Ryd2 (Yd2) gene,
which comes from Ethiopian spring barley lines and which is widely used in
breeding programmes in barley, and Bdv2 gene, which originates from an
intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium) and which has been
introduced into some wheat cultivars. (Kosova& Šíp, 2008).
CONT.

11.  Fusarium head blight (FHB) in durum wheat- the reduction of plant height is
an important breeding goal in durum wheat and consequently the semi
dwarfing Rht-B1b allele is now widespread in durum wheat breeding
programs worldwide. Utilization of semi dwarf alleles is, however, associated
with some unwanted characteristics, including increased susceptibility to FHB.
Therefore, the choice of semi dwarfing genes used in durum wheat breeding
programs is of highest consideration where resistance to FHB is an important
breeding target. As an alternative, marker-assisted introgression of the newly
reported semi dwarfing allele, Rht24b. (Haile, et al. 2019).
 The potential of genome engineering/editing to improve drought tolerance in
wheat. The use of CRISPR-Cas9 and other gene-editing technologies can be
used to fine-tune the expression of genes controlling drought adaptive traits,
while high throughput phenotyping (HTP) techniques can potentially
accelerate the selection process. These efforts are empowered by wheat
researchers. (Khadka et al., 2020)
CONT.

12.  One mutant variety Shua-92 and two mutants of rice, derived through
mutation breeding from the two standard varieties IR8 and Pokkali, were
evaluated for two years for their yield performance in salt affected soils with
pH 7.63 to 7.68 and EC 7.11 to 8.0 dSm-1. The mutant variety Shua-92
produced 40 and 49% higher paddy yield on salt affected soils than the
famous salt tolerant varieties Nona Bokra and Pokkali. (Baloch et al., 2003)
3 Heterosis Breeding
 Twelve F1 hybrids of cucumber derived from a top cross involving twelve
monoecious parents and a gynoecious parent (EC 709119) were evaluated in
randomized block design (RBD) with three replications to study heterosis over
mid and better parents. Significant heterosis was observed for all the
characters studied except average fruit weight. The hybrids EC 709119 x IC
538155 followed by EC 709119 x IC 527427, EC 709119 x IC 538186 and
EC 709119 x IC 410617 exhibited high heterobeltiosis for fruit yield and fruits
per plant. These hybrids can be advanced for further testing for commercial
exploitation of hybrid vigour. (Airina et al., 2013)
CONT.

13.  Heterosis was found over better and standard parent for all the traits studied
in desirable direction. In order of merit, the highest heterobeltiosis was
recorded by cross ABSR 2 x GP BRJ-31 (52.52 %) followed by GOB 1 x
AB 08-14 (45.31 %) and GOB 1 x GP BRJ-204 (37.78 %), while cross GOB
1 x AB 08-14 ranked first by recording the highest standard heterosis (88.88
%) for fruit yield per plant followed by followed by GOB 1 x GP BRJ-204
(71.42 %) and ABSR 2 x AB 08-14 (70.23 %). The cross GOB 1 x AB 08-14
also recorded significant standard heterosis for fruit girth, fruit weight and
total soluble solids. The present study revealed good scope for isolation of
pure lines from the progenies of heterotic F1 hybrids as well as commercial
exploitation of heterosis breeding in brinjal. (Balwani et al., 2017)
CONT.

14. OPPORTUNITIES
 Water use efficiency.
 Nutrient use efficiency (particularly nitrogen and phosphorus).
 Weed competitiveness.
 Increase storage time.
There is different breeding objectives for different crops for example
developing male varieties in asparagus is the major objective of
breeding.

15. SUMMARY
 For agriculture to thrive in the future, changes must be made to address
arising global issues. These issues are the lack of arable land, increasingly
harsh cropping conditions and the need to maintain food security, which
involves being able to provide the world population with sufficient
nutrition. Crops need to be able to mature in multiple environments to allow
worldwide access, which involves solving problems including drought
tolerance. It has been suggested that global solutions are achievable through
the process of plant breeding, with its ability to select specific genes
allowing crops to perform at a level which yields the desired results.
(Rhodes, 2013).
 Future food security faces a four-fold challenge: upward pressure on
demand, downward pressure on supply and the need for production that is
both resilient and sustainable (F.A.O., 2010). Furthermore, these factors do
not simply add up; due to their interaction and collective reinforcement,
they are expected to amplify the overall burden of food insecurity and
consequent need for transformation of the food system. (Smith, 2013).

16. REFERENCES
 Bänziger, M., & Long, J. (2000). The Potential for Increasing the Iron and Zinc
Density of Maize through Plant-breeding. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 21(4), 397–
400.
 Welch, R. M., House, W. A., Ortiz-Monasterio, I., & Cheng, Z. H. I. Q. I. A. N. G.
(2005). Potential for improving bioavailable zinc in wheat grain (Triticum species)
through plant breeding. Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, 53(6), 2176-
2180.
 Hu, J., Xiao, C., & He, Y. (2016). Recent progress on the genetics and molecular
breeding of brown planthopper resistance in rice. Rice, 9(1), 1-12.
 Final, F. A. O. (2010). Document: international scientific symposium biodiversity
and sustainable diets: united against hunger. In International Scientific Symposium:
Biodiversity and Sustainable Diets-United against Hunger.
 Smith, P. (2013). Delivering food security without increasing pressure on
land. Global Food Security, 2(1), 18-23.

17.  Haile, J. K., N’Diaye, A., Walkowiak, S., Nilsen, K. T., Clarke, J. M., Kutcher, H. R.,
... & Pozniak, C. J. (2019). Fusarium head blight in durum wheat: Recent status,
breeding directions, and future research prospects. Phytopathology, 109(10), 1664-
1675.
 Kosova, K., Chrpová, J., & Šíp, V. (2008). Recent advances in breeding of
cereals for resistance to barley yellow dwarf virus. Czech Journal of Genetics
and Plant Breeding, 44(1), 1-10.
 Rhodes (2013). "Addressing the potential for a selective breeding-based
approach in sustainable agriculture". International Journal of Agricultural
Research. 42 (12).
 Khadka, K., Raizada, M. N., & Navabi, A. (2020). Recent progress in
germplasm evaluation and gene mapping to enable breeding of drought-
tolerant wheat. Frontiers in Plant Science, 11, 1149.
 Baloch, A. W., Soomro, A. M., Javed, M. A., Bughio, H. U. R., Alam, S. M.,
Bughio, M. S., ... & Mastoi, N. U. N. (2003). Induction of salt tolerance in rice
through mutation breeding. Asian Journal of Plant Sciences (Pakistan).
 https://www.plantbreeding.org/content/what-is-plant-breeding/
CONT.

18.  Airina, C. K., Pradeepkumar, T., George, T. E., Sadhankumar, P. G., &
Krishnan, S. (2013). Heterosis breeding exploiting gynoecy in cucumber
(Cucumis sativus L.). Journal of Tropical Agriculture, 51(1), 144-148.
 Balwani, A., Patel, J., Acharya, R., Gohil, D., & Dhruve, J. (2017).
Heterosis for fruit yield and its component traits in brinjal (Solanum
melongena L.). J. Pharmacogn. Phytochem, 6, 187-190.
CONT.